Pierce on D-Will: He’s frustrated with the ankle

Deron Williams suffered another setback to his ankle as the Nets lost to the Bobcats. AP Photo.

Deron Williams has seemingly been dealing with an ankle injury forever. It only actually feels like forever though because he had a couple of ankle problems last season that lingered all year and now, to start this season, he’s been dealing with another injury that has had at least a pair of setbacks.

It’s frustrating for Nets fans, and imagine how he feels.

“He’s just as frustrated as we are, obviously,” Paul Pierce told Tim Bontemps of the NY Post to D-Will. “He’s been dealing with this since summer, and then one ankle gets better and he hurts the other one.”

Part of the frustration is that the injury lingers for so long to the point where it seems like he, and the team, would just be better off with a full 2-4 weeks worth of rest. Instead, it seems like D-Will rushes back too soon after every setback for the-good-of-the-team.

Last year he entered into the season with a pair of ankle injuries. The injury happened during the offseason while he was playing with the Olympic team. Then, because the Nets were moving to Brooklyn and doing heavy promotion, he didn’t get to rest at all during the offseason. The injury never went away and only after months and a few cortisone shots did he even have temporary relief.

This past offseason was pretty intense for him too, but mostly because he’s a man-child. D-Will filled his instagram account with videos of him on trampolines, playing dodgeball, and other childish games when he probably should have taken some real time off to let the ankle get better. Now he’s already missed nearly the entire training camp, had a setback, missed two games, and now this latest setback.

At this point we’ll be lucky if he’s completely healthy by Christmas. The Nets have struggled already, but if he’s working at 80-90 percent between now and a month from now things could get ugly.

Williams has averaged 13.9 points per 36 minutes with an effective field goal percentage of 46.2. Those numbers are down from 18.7 and 51.6 from last season. His assists have gone up though from 7.7 per 36 minutes last year to 9.0 this year. Those numbers show that he has been more passive this season choosing to dish first and shoot second. Normally that wouldn’t be so bad as he is a point guard, but with the shooting percentage down it is more likely that he doesn’t trust himself on the court.

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